Prigozhin reveals further details: Russia warns Prigozhin of losing funding unless he signs contracts with the Ministry of Defense

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the private military group Wagner, said that Russian authorities informed him that he will be denied funding if his fighters don’t sign contracts with the Defense Ministry.
The TASS news agency, quoting Colonel-General Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Defense Committee in the lower house, said that Prigozhin had refused to sign the contracts and therefore Russia had informed him that his fighters would no longer take part in the fighting in Ukraine.
For his part, Wagner Commander Yevgeny Prigozhin said, Thursday, that his forces are considered the most experienced in Russia and may be the most in the world, adding that our group is carrying out many tasks in the interest of Russia.
He added in an audio recording, “Our group carries out missions in Africa, Arab countries and various regions of the world… We achieved good results in Ukraine and carried out very serious missions”.
Wagner commander continued, “No fighter from our group wanted to sign with the Russian defense because they knew in advance of the course of the military operation that they would lose their capabilities, and the number of those who signed didn’t exceed 2%… We’ve always been against working under the banner of the Ministry of Defense”.
Prigozhin said before announcing the rebellion, “We were targeted with a missile strike and helicopter gunships, although we didn’t put up any resistance… About 30 people from our group were killed and others were injured… I sent a message about our lack of intention to carry out hostile actions and that we will not respond unless we are targeted”.
He added, “The rebellion lasted 24 hours, and our first convoy headed to Rostov and the other towards Moscow… During the day of the rebellion, our convoy covered 780 km and we didn’t kill any soldiers on the ground”.
He expressed his regret, “because during the rebellion we were forced to strike the Air Force, which dropped bombs and fired missiles at us… We reached the outskirts of Moscow during the rebellion, and we were separated from it by 200 and a few kilometers… We closed all military buildings on the road towards Moscow during the rebellion… Human losses during our march towards Moscow, I arrived for soldiers who joined us and a number of wounded from our forces… We stopped rebelling at the moment when it became clear that a lot of blood would be spilled… We were content with showing our strength and we had no aim to overthrow the current government or the president… We only wanted justice”.
Prigozhin continued, “Lukashenko extended his hand to us and suggested finding a solution for the work of our group in the future”.
In response to a question, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, stated that he had no information about the current whereabouts of the founder of the Wagner private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin.